BATON ROUGE - The trial of a mother accused of punching her child in the stomach prior to the two-year-old's death began Tuesday, The Advocate reported.

Lanaya Cardwell, 28, had faced a second-degree murder charge in the 2021 killing of her 2-year-old daughter, Nevaeh Allen. However, her murder charge was downgraded to second-degree cruelty to juveniles and other related charges. A jury last May convicted Cardwell's boyfriend, Phillip Gardner, of murder and hiding the girl's body in Mississippi.

Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Barrios Heap said while Cardwell did not cause the head wounds that killed Allen, an autopsy showed "trauma so severe that it caused a laceration of her bowels."

According to testimony, Cardwell was upset with the child on Sept. 24, 2021, after the girl picked up a contact lens case and damaged one of the lenses inside. Cardwell struck the girl with a fist, investigators said. Arrest records say that after Cardwell took the child to another room, Nevaeh emerged with a large bruise on her forehead.

Cardwell's attorney said Cardwell was at work when the events that led to Allen's death happened and that Cardwell "popped" the child on the hand and nothing more. He also emphasized that the case was built against Cardwell based on Gardner's claim that he hid Allen's body in Mississippi to cover up for Cardwell's actions.